In this week’s episode, we continue our conversation with Dr. Kevin Majeres, turning our attention to the importance of setting challenges and the way actions shape emotions. Drawing on these two topics, Dr. Majeres helps us think through how parents can best help a son that is struggling with an addiction of any sort.
In particular, Dr. Majeres responds to the following questions:
As we hear from Dr. Majeres, true freedom consists in the ability to form a deep bond and faithfully maintain it over time. Rather than a mere negation—a freedom from some outside force—the deepest freedom lies in a freedom for, the ability to give of oneself to another. We might well say, then, that there is no greater freedom than the freedom of friendship, and that the greatest of friends is He who leads us in libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei: into the glorious freedom of the sons of God.
The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist
Growing Up Brave by Donna Pincus
OptimalWork on YouTube
On Freedom and Phones with Alvaro de Vicente
Why Boys Need to Be Given Freedom by Andrew Reed
Freedom in the Upper School by Rich Moss
We have all experienced moments in which we are so immersed in a task that we lose track of time and performance feels effortless. For some, this may occur on the sports field; for others, in the classroom; and still, for others, in the performance hall.
Yet, we have likely also experienced the opposite. For many children, the struggle for concentration is probably more prevalent.
Last week, we began a three-part series with Dr. Kevin Majeres. We discussed what anxiety is and how parents can help their sons—and themselves—turn occasions of anxiety into opportunities for growth. This week, we are back with Dr. Majeres to discuss attention and mindfulness.
In the episode, Dr. Majeres helps us begin to answer the following questions:
In the end, mindfulness offers us a doorway into two aspects of freedom that are at the heart of human flourishing. Learning to attend to our work at school helps us to attend to others in society. And, in both instances, learning to attend well is a pathway to love; for what we love captures our attention — what lover does not often find his mind turning to his beloved? — and that to which we attend, we can begin to love.
If education is the turning of a mind, as we hear in the Republic, then mindfulness may well be fundamental to its success. For when one turns toward the truth, he will thereby be ready not only to recognize it but, even more, he will be prepared to fall in love with it.
Chapters
Additional Resources
What is a Golden Hour? with Dr. Kevin Majeres and Sharif Younes
Back to the Basics: An Intro to OptimalWork with Dr. Kevin Majeres
OptimalWork on YouTube
Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies by Simone Weil
Also on The Forum
From Anxiety to Adventure with Dr. Kevin Majeres
Why We Need Exposure to Nature by Eric Heil
Training the Hand to Train the Mind by Robert Grieving
Three Guiding Principles for Homework by Rich Moss
Adorning our school’s main hallway is a sort of charter for the Heights graduate which designates him as a man who is “optimistic toward life’s challenges,” as one who “sees freedom as an opportunity to choose the good.” Fostering these ideals in each student is a central aspect of the school’s mission. But, in a world that is increasingly filled with children suffering from anxiety, how—in very practical terms—can we help our students develop such an outlook on life?
Last month, we heard from Mr. Alex Berthé on how parents can find peace in an anxiety ridden world. This week on HeightsCast, we begin a series of discussions with Dr. Kevin Majeres, lecturer at Harvard Medical School and Founder of OptimalWork.
In this three-part series, we take a deep dive into three sets of challenges which are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s youth, and three mindsets or skills that can help us as parents and teachers to help our boys help themselves:
Our first discussion with Dr. Majeres focuses on anxiety. Combining years of experience as a psychiatrist and drawing on research in cognitive behavioral therapy, Dr. Majeres teaches us both what anxiety is and what we can do about it.
In the episode, we learn:
An essential component of The Heights School’s mission is to help students discover the adventure hidden in every challenge they face. Having spoken with Dr. Majeres, we might phrase this skill as the ability to turn the adrenaline of anxiety into the adventure of everyday life.
Chapters
Additional Resources
The Golden Hour with Dr. Kevin Majeres
Turning the Knots in Your Stomach into Bows by Jeremy Jamieson, et al.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck
Also on The Forum
“Learn to Turn”: Tom Royals on Parental Prudence
Parenting: Patience or Optimism with Andrew Reed
The Stressed Son: The Causes of Adolescent Anxiety with Alvaro de Vicente
Be the Rock: Fatherhood During Times of Crisis by Kyle Blackmer
Toughness for the Adolescent Boy by Kyle Blackmer
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that he has “become all things to all people,” so that he might better share the blessings of the Good News with more people. To become such a man who can be for all seasons, however, one must have been educated for all seasons. A preparation of this sort is precisely what the Liberal Arts, rooted in the Western Tradition, afford those who wish to pursue them. In Cicero’s own words, these arts are apt for both all seasons and all settings:
Though, even if there were no such great advantage to be reaped from [the study of literature], and if it were only pleasure that is sought from these studies, still I imagine you would consider it a most reasonable and liberal employment of the mind: for other occupations are not suited to every time, nor to every age or place; but these studies are the food of youth, the delight of old age; the ornament of prosperity, the refuge and comfort of adversity; a delight at home, and no hindrance abroad; they are companions by night, and in travel, and in the country. (Pro archia poeta, 7.16)
Today we talk to Dr. Lionel Yaceczko about all things Western: Western Civilization, the Western Tradition, Western Culture. We discuss just what we mean by “the West," and why it has become so controversial in recent years. With Dr. Yaceczko’s guidance, we consider why a deep study of The West is still worth protecting and promoting, beyond nostalgia and mere academic interest.
In this week’s episode, Dr. Yaceczko sets the stage by offering a high level definition of these concepts, and then arguing that there is, indeed, something worth protecting in our tradition. This is especially true if we are interested in critiquing events of our own time and of times past, because the Western tradition is the source of so many of the commonly accepted standards now used to evaluate human conduct. Important concepts such as equality under law and justice for all are born of this culture, extending roots into both Rome and Christianity, and growing in the rich soil of both Roman and non-Roman peoples alike.
We might disagree about what they mean or how we use them, but perhaps that's a good place for us to start. And, if so, let's start at the very beginning: there was Rome, the Church, the Romans, and the Gentes.
Chapters
Suggested Reading
The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity by Christopher Dawson
Pro Archia Poeta by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Also on The Forum
On Christianity and the Classical Education with Dr. Lionel Yaceczko
History the Way it Was by Bill Dardis
Defining the Liberal Arts with Dr. Matthew Mehan
Is The Heights a Classical School? with Michael Moynihan